The Germans did not under-estimate the threat which this Polish
Underground Army constituted, and their officials were constantly
warned of possible dangers and recommended not to live singly but in
groups (a special section in every town was reserved for them), and to
avoid walking in the street unaccompanied while the soldiers were
forbidden to leave their barracks alone. Every German was continually
reminded that he was in enemy country and warned to act accordingly.
This system of security, forced on the occupant, on its officialdom and
its army, meant a heavy strain on German man-power.
The Information Bulletin for June 23, 1943, Save the following picture
of the state of affairs in Warsaw :— .
"A cordon of German police: armed with rifles and machine-guns, is
posted at every two paces on both sides of the street. There is a crowd of
plain-clothes police and spies on the pavements. The trams make the
entire journey from one end to the other without stopping anywhere.
Armed police on motor-cycles and in cars patrol the roads, many a passer-by
is stopped and his documents examined, especially if he is carrying a despatch
case or packets. Finally, a procession of two closed cars, convoyed by
numerous cars filled with armed police, tears past at a furious speed.
" This is what Warsaw looks like when Governor-General Frank arrives
for a couple of days and has to go from one street to another. A necessary
precaution, since an almost successful attempt was made on his life at the
end of 1943. His train was blown up but he was rescued."
The sentences imposed on certain particularly tyrannical occupants
by the Military Tribunals of the Home Army were invariably carried out.
The pages of the German newspapers published in Poland contained lists
of German officials who had " fallen for the Fuehrer and the Reich in
Poland." Usually these notices gave no indication as to how the death had
occurred, but Major Schmidt, for instance, the Commandant of the
notorious concentration camp at Majdanek, was killed by a soldier of
the Home Army on May 2i31943, and on tie previous day the Deputy-
Commandant of the S.S., Spielhamer, was also dealt with. By an order
of the * Directorate of Civil Resistance/ one captain and two lieutenants
convicted of torturing prisoners were killed on May 22, at 9-50 a.m.,
in the Cafe Adria in Warsaw. To avoid harming the innocent, bombs
and hand-grenades were not used, the sentence was executed with a
revolver. The Polish soldier (a locksmith by the name of Jan Kryst)
detailed to carry out the sentence knew when he entered that cafe he
would not come out alive.
The Chief of the Special Bureau, whose task was to counter the ac-
tivities of the Polish Underground, the Obersturm-Feuhrer Lechner,
died at the hand of a soldier of the Home Army on October 2, 1943.
During the first four months of 1943, according to the Report of the
c Directorate of Civil Resistance' (partly published in Britain), 1,175
German Gestapo and 1,051 German military or civil servants had been
executed.*
* Dzienmk Polski, February 22nd, 1944.
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